Conventional travel systems for children commonly include car seats and strollers. The car seats typically include a base that removably mounts to a vehicle seat and the strollers typically include a wheeled frame, with a child carrier provided that can be removably mounted to the car-seat base or the stroller frame. In this way, parents can transport a child in a car seat in the family car, then upon arrival simply dismount the carrier (holding the child) from the car-seat base and mount it to a stroller (e.g., carried in the back of the car). This is especially helpful when the child is sleeping and would be awakened if removed from the carrier.
A drawback to these child travel systems is that carriers from different manufacturers are not compatible with car-seat bases and stroller frames of other manufacturers. So if parents have an existing car seat and want to purchase a new stroller, they're typically limited to either buying a stroller made by the same manufacturer as the existing car seat (assuming a compatible model is still available) or buying a new stroller and car seat travel system (even though the existing car seat still had plenty of life left in it).
To address this problem, some companies have introduced adapters for stroller frames that permit a carrier from a different manufacturer and/or of a different style to be used with their stroller frame. But such adapters have not proven entirely satisfactory. Some adapters work with carriers of only one or two manufacturers, other adapters work with carriers of three or four manufacturers but are overly complicated and difficult to use, and no adapters are known to work safely with carriers of a larger number of manufacturers.
Accordingly, it can be seen that needs exist for better ways to use child carriers with non-compatible stroller frames. It is to the provision of solutions meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.